Presidential funeral train, taking George H. W. Bush's casket through Texas, will be first in nearly 50 years

A blue and grey locomotive commissioned in honour of the 41st president in 2005 will travel 113 kilometres through five small Texas towns

The Associated Press

Updated: December 6, 2018

A sign hangs from a building next to the rail lines where Union Pacific No. 4141 will be bearing the coffin of President George H.W. Bush on December 05, 2018 in Navasota, Texas. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

AUSTIN, Texas — The locomotive was painted to resemble Air Force One, but George H.W. Bush joked that if it had been around during his presidency, he may have preferred to ride the rails rather than take to the skies.

“I might have left Air Force One behind,” Bush quipped during the 2005 unveiling of 4141, a blue and grey locomotive commissioned in honour of the 41st president and unveiled at Texas A&M University.

On Thursday, that same 4,300-horsepower machine will carry Bush’s casket, along with relatives and close friends, for around 113 kilometres. The journey through five small Texas towns was expected to take about two and a half hours. It will deliver the casket from suburban Houston to College Station.

In this Oct. 18, 2005, file photo, a new locomotive numbered 4141 in honour of the 41st president, George H.W. Bush, is unveiled at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.Pat Sullivan/AP

There, a motorcade will take Bush to his presidential library at the university, where he will be laid to rest at a private ceremony next to his wife, Barbara, who died in April, and his daughter Robin, who died at age 3 in 1953.

The train’s sixth car, a converted baggage hauler called “Council Bluffs,” has been fitted with transparent sides to allow mourners lining the tracks on Thursday views of Bush’s flag draped coffin.

It will be the eighth funeral train in U.S. history and the first since Dwight D. Eisenhower’s body travelled from the National Cathedral in Washington through seven states to his Kansas hometown of Abilene 49 years ago. Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train was the first, in 1865.

Fformer President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara wave out the window of a new locomotive numbered 4141.Pat Sullivan/AP

Robert F. Kennedy was never president, but he was running for the White House when he was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968. His body was later transported to New York City for a funeral Mass and then taken by private train to Washington for burial at Arlington National Cemetery. Thousands of mourners lined the tracks for the 200-plus-mile journey.

Union Pacific originally commissioned the Bush locomotive for the opening of an exhibit at his presidential library titled “Trains: Tracks of the Iron Horse.” It was one of the few times the company has painted a locomotive any colour other than its traditional yellow. After a brief training session during 4141’s unveiling 13 years ago, Bush took the engineer’s seat and helped take the locomotive for a 2-mile excursion.

“We just rode on the railroads all the time, and I’ve never forgotten it,” Bush said at the time, recalling how he took trains, and often slept on them, during trips as a child with his family. He also called the locomotive “the Air Force One of railroads.”

Workers prepare for a departure ceremony of the casket of former President George H.W. Bush at Union Pacific Westfield auto facility Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018.Kiichiro Sato/AP

Bush, who died last week at his Houston home at age 94, was eulogized Wednesday at a funeral service at the National Cathedral. By evening, his casket was at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston.

The funeral train has been part of the official planning for his death for years, Bush spokesman Jim McGrath said.

Union Pacific was contacted by federal officials in early 2009 and asked, at Bush’s request, about providing a funeral train at some point, company spokesman Tom Lange said.

“We said, ‘Of course and also we have this locomotive that we would want to have obviously be part of it,”‘ Lange said. He noted that trains were the mode of transportation that first carried Bush to his service as a naval aviator in World War II and back home again.

Firefighters rehearse putting an American flag on an overpass above the rail lines where Union Pacific No. 4141 will be bearing the coffin of President George H.W. Bush on December 05, 2018 in Tomball, Texas.Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Eisenhower was the last president to travel by train regularly. A key reason was his wife, Mamie, who hated to fly. During the 1952 campaign, Eisenhower travelled more than 51,000 miles and made 252 stops. And while he often flew, his wife rode the train the whole time, Union Pacific said.

Still, when Bush beat Democrat Michael Dukakis and won the presidency in 1988, both candidates used trains to make some campaign stops. Bush also occasionally travelled by train in 1992, when he was defeated by Democrat Bill Clinton, including making Midwest stops aboard a train dubbed “The Spirit of America.”

This Week's Flyers

Comments

Postmedia is pleased to bring you a new commenting experience. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.